Thursday, March 19, 2009

catch 22

Twelve thousand of Fiji's squatters are caught in legal limbo. Their families were recruited to come to Fiji from Melanesia back in the 1860s to work on the cotton and sugar plantations. Denied citizenship, they stayed and intermarried, essentially becoming Fijian, just not in a legal sense. Now one tiny impoverished community of 30 people faces a forced conundrum: accept eviction, or pay 13,000 Australian dollars each to buy their land. Another 30 immigrant squatter communities are at risk. The Australian Broadcasting Company has details.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

robert -- please forgive a slightly off-topic comment. I didn't see contact info, but it seemed like this article would be interesting to you:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/tent-city-report/

the mayor of sacramento is considering installing plumbing and other services in a tent city there.

(I've been reading your blog for a while. thank you for interesting information and updates on the 'informal sector' around the world!)

rn said...

Thanks for this, j.c. I've been following the story from afar. The Mayor's idea about infrastructure is intriguing. Would that governments around the world considered it, too.